Alcohol Broadcast Ads Should Be Banned

Since the Montreal-based Seagram Co. seems hellbent on advertising its Crown Royal Canadian whiskey on American television, despite pleas from President Clinton to desist (“Hard-Liquor Firms Urged to Stay on Wagon,” June 15), it is unlikely that American liquor companies will hold back on their own profit considerations, regardless of public health and safety concerns.

But such is the fragile nature of the 50-year voluntary ban observed by hard-liquor companies and advertisers. Profits over children. Even with underage drinking again on the rise, maverick Allied Domecq has quietly aired Presidente brandy ads on Spanish-language broadcast media in recent years, ignoring community protests by concerned Latinos and others.

So much for self-regulation. It’s high time Congress truly protected family values and banned ads for all alcoholic beverages from broadcasts. Alcohol is alcohol is alcohol, whether beer, wine or liquor. After all, ads for tobacco products have been federally banned from the public airwaves since 1971 during President Nixon’s administration.

How long will our 15-to-24-year-old age group continue to self-destruct as a result of alcohol-related accidents, homicides and suicides?

Yes, alcohol is legal, but only for adults. And because the point of sale begins with an ad or a promotion of some kind, the entire process of “pushing” booze requires regulation. The merchandising of alcohol in America is too important a privilege to leave it to those who profit from it at the expense of all taxpayers.

RAY CHAVIRA

Member, L.A. County

Commission on Alcoholism